Random Observations on the Subway

On the subway here in Düsseldorf there is a sign that tells travelers to not stand directly in front of the doors where the steps fold out or they won’t open.

There have actually been several variations of this sign that have been used over the years. Here is number one, the oldest version I know of. The funny thing about this sign is, that while the English version instructs you, to keep off the “red coloured area”, the German version refers to the color as “orange”.

In a later version of the sign, shown below, this inconsistency has been fixed and the steps are now referred to as “orange” in both English and German.

And here’s the latest version I saw just the other day. The question of what to call the color is now avoided completely.

This was probably for the best. Because after all these years, the steps are now more gray than orange (or red).